Carmen Schmidt, Founder of A Yarn Story

Carmen Schmidt is the founder and owner of A Yarn Story, the independent yarn shop on Walcot Street in Bath. She opened the shop in November 2014 and has spent more than ten years choosing the yarns on its shelves, teaching and supporting knitters, and building a community around the craft.

About Carmen

Carmen was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, in a family of makers. Her mum was the Creative Director at Stretch & Sew, and Carmen grew up sewing her own clothes, weaving rugs for her doll's house and making endless i-cords on a French knitting dolly. Her parents ran a fine dining restaurant for more than 25 years, which gave her an early lesson in what it takes to run a small business.

She went to university in California on a volleyball scholarship, studying English at the University of California, Irvine, before moving to Germany in 2004. There she ran training and development for an engineering company in Stuttgart and completed an executive MBA at Goethe Business School in Frankfurt, in partnership with Duke University.

Carmen had known how to knit since she was a child, but it was in Ireland in 2012 that it really took hold. A visit to This is Knit in Dublin with her mum led to her first cowl, then classes in knitting in the round, socks and Fair Isle. After moving to Bath in 2013, she combined her business training with her love of yarn and opened A Yarn Story at The Shed in Bathford, moving to Walcot Street in Bath's Artisan Quarter six months later.

Knitting experience

• Founded A Yarn Story in 2014 and chooses the yarns, patterns and tools the shop stocks
• A self-confessed "product knitter" who makes socks, shawls, mitts, hats and sweaters, as long as they're beautiful, useful and full of colour
• Has hosted workshops at the shop with visiting teachers including Rachel Coopey, Stephen West, Melanie Berg, Carole Feller and Kate Atherley
• Hosts A Yarn Story's knitting retreats: luxury retreats in Bath and country house retreats in the Lake District
• Has worked with dozens of yarn brands over the years, from The Fibre Co. and Isager to Knitting for Olive and Brooklyn Tweed

In Carmen's words

"With yarn you can take that string you love and turn it into whatever you want – absolutely whatever your heart desires."

Read Carmen's writing

• How to Store and Care for Yarn
• How to Substitute Yarn in Knitting Patterns: A Step-by-Step Guide
• The Science of Drape: Why Some Yarns Flow and Others Hold Their Shape
• How to Block Knitting: Techniques for Every Fibre
• Gifts for Knitters: What to Buy Someone Who Has Every Yarn

Find Carmen

Visit Carmen and the team at A Yarn Story on Walcot Street, Bath, or follow along on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook.